{"id":22905,"date":"2023-08-11T05:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-08-11T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/?p=22905"},"modified":"2023-08-08T09:10:43","modified_gmt":"2023-08-08T09:10:43","slug":"saint-agnes-bloodsuckers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/?p=22905","title":{"rendered":"Saint Agnes – \u2018Bloodsuckers\u2019 (Spinefarm Records)"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019ve got no fucks left to give\u201d screams Kitty A. Austin on \u2018I Mean Nothing To You\u2019, the third track on the sophomore album from East London noise merchants Saint Agnes. That one statement sums up the pent-up aggression and raw power that the band have as she rages with utter conviction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Written and recorded in the weeks and months following the sudden death of the singer\u2019s mother, \u2018Bloodsuckers\u2019 is the sound of a band on the edge, fighting with everything they have to survive, whilst holding a middle finger firmly in defiance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Saint Agnes have come a long way since their debut album \u2018Welcome To Silvertown\u2019 was released back in 2019. The covid years saw the band veer away from the White Stripes\/The Kills bluesy guitar\/drums sound with the release of the critically acclaimed \u2018The Family Strange\u2019 and \u2018Vampire\u2019 EPs, where they attack their music with a touch more venom and a whole lotta conviction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The opening title track of \u2018Bloodsuckers\u2019 follows in the same vein with an angry burst of industrial-tinged noise. It\u2019s an expletive-ridden diatribe with intense beats and razor wire guitar riffage. I think I may be in love! The following single \u2018Animal\u2019 rides in on a No Doubt style melody over a cool skulking bassline, but there\u2019s where the comparisons firmly end. \u201cI\u2019m a motherfuckin animal\u201d she screams over detuned guitars and a barrage of beats. It’s more ferocious and honest than anything she has put her vocals chords to in the past. \u201cMotherfucker try to fight me?\u201d she challenges, as her partner in grime Jon James Tufnell reels off another jarring riff over industrial noise. Dark, pissed off and as powerful as a juggernaut crashing through your speakers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Outsider\u2019 is the standout, and dare I say it, most commercial song on offer. It is the perfect anthem for the disenchanted youth, the kids who don\u2019t belong, it\u2019s a song for society\u2019s rejects to rejoice in and take as their own. The killer chorus refrain, the sultry vocal delivery and the chugging, Nu-Metal guitar riffs. It\u2019s a monster of a song, make no mistake.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How do you follow such a song? How about ending side one of the record with a piano-led ballad that questions life, the universe and the absurd futility of it all? Grief can be the most powerful of emotions and can fuel the creative juices of a songwriter like nothing else. Heartfelt, emotive and delicate, \u2018This Is Not The End\u2019 will tug at the heartstrings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n